Saturday, July 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 28 — Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a long history of heart disease, had minor surgery Saturday to replace the implanted cardiac device that can monitor and correct his heart rhythm, the White House said.

Years ago, Time magazine developed a series of expressions their writers were to use to get certain messages across to the reader while limiting the chance of legal action against the magazine. For example, Time never said that a politician was drunk in public, which can be very harmful to a person's career and can't be proved by a reporter without a verified blood alcohol report made at the scene. In Timespeak, drunk public officials were "dazed and confused" as they rambled in their speech. If they were a crying drunk they were "tired and emotional". A person's illicit lover (whether homosexual or extramarital or both) was their "great and good friend".

The idea continues to this day. When Rudy Giuliani was found having an affair with a member of his mayoral staff, the Village Voice tiptoed around the issue by saying that the woman "had served under him in a variety of positions over the years".

Therefore I love the Times' use in this headline of the verb "installed". I believe that like "dazed and confused' and "served under him", the phrase means more than it says: it's as if they're trying to tell us that like Darth Vader, Cheney is now more machine than man.

About Me

I am the author of the book "The Science of Battelestar Galactica", published in October 2010 by Wiley. I am also a contributing editor for Wired Magazine. I write science fiction. I used to work at the American Museum of Natural History. I have worked as a robot programmer for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. I have lost $500,000 in US currency. I have done standup comedy. I have walked on the outside ledge of the 72nd floor of the Empire State Building for a radio story. I have designed experiments that have flown on the Space Shuttle. I grew up in a haunted house in Yonkers, NY. I have been on the internet since 1989. I have explained meteorites to David Byrne. I have had Wolf Blitzer steal pizza from me. I have shaken hands with five men who have walked on the moon.